Andor's Kyle Soller on Syril's 'Incredible' Anger: He's 'Finally Understanding That He's Been the Patsy'

[Warning: The following contains spoilers up to Season 2, Episode 8 of Andor.]

"I really always thought Syril is a victim of this ideology," said Andor's Kyle Soller, discussing his character Syril Karn's intense dedication to the Empire. "He is a villain, of course, but he's not your typical Star Wars villain — maybe because he has a little bit more heart. He's a victim of the ideology he so much wants to be rewarded by. Which doesn't reward heart, doesn't reward family and love and connection. So he's chasing after something that ultimately will destroy him. And he's so romantic about it, he has no idea."

Imperial civil servant Syril Karn is one of the most fascinating characters we meet in Andor: an ambitious bootlicker who grew up surrounded by symbols of fascist power on the Empire's capital planet, Coruscant. He's driven by an obsession with rules and order — and, subtextually, by mommy issues thanks to his controlling mother Eedy (Kathryn Hunter), a constant source of catty putdowns and unwanted career advice.

Andor casts a wide net in terms of historical and political inspiration, but Soller's main research source for Syril was civilian collaborators in Nazi Germany, which led him to the 1955 nonfiction book They Thought They Were Free. "It's just countless stories of people who, by all accounts, were just quite liberal, free-thinking people, and gradually those morals were eroded, until they were informing on their friends and turning people in because they believed it was the right thing to do."

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Cast as an opposing force to the rebel agent Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Syril is passionately invested in maintaining the Empire's authority — so much so that his zealotry can make other Imperial insiders uncomfortable. Starting out as a fervently self-motivated corporate cop in Season 1, he later becomes an undercover operative on Ghorman — a planet targeted by a vicious ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) propaganda campaign. Overlapping with this mission, Syril also embarks on a relationship with ISB officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), opening a new chapter in his life.

A uniquely twisted love story

"He's a loner who has grown up in his own head, and has incredible social difficulties and internal pressures and wounds," Soller told TV Guide. "He finds a kind of trauma bond with her."

Drawing comparisons between Dedra's upbringing in an Imperial orphanage and Syril's childhood sharing a cramped apartment with his overbearing mother, Soller noted that "both grew up with incredible amounts of control being used against them." Yet after complaining about his mother invading his privacy in Season 1, Syril embraces a similarly unequal dynamic with Dedra: a decisive older woman who surveils him from afar and literally becomes his commanding officer. It's a Freudian situation, to say the least.

"I guess their relationship, if we can call it that, is one that's really centered around power and control and obsession. They're brought together by a shared obsession of capturing Cassian, and then Syril transfers part of that obsession onto Dedra, because she has a higher station than him," Soller said. "She has a better outfit! She's part of the ISB, which is something he would be desperate to be a part of, and so you could see him as hitching himself to her coattails. But really it's like he wants to figure out how to become her, I always thought. Because he is a romantic fantasist, at the end of the day."

Syril's delusional romanticism shines through in the bizarre backstory for this partnership, which began in an interrogation room. Dedra wanted to question him about his off-books investigation into Cassian Andor, but instead of being disturbed by the experience, Syril was thrilled to meet a potential kindred spirit. Later, he returned to stalk Dedra outside her workplace. "Just being in your presence, I've realized that life is worth living," he told her — a reaction that Dedra clearly found unnerving. 

Between seasons, this encounter somehow blossoms into romance, although the power dynamics in their relationship are notably complicated. Initially encouraging him to gain independence from his mother, Dedra gives Syril what he always wanted: an exciting mission to help the Empire. But after a year of infiltrating the Ghorman rebels, he begins to realize that the Empire may not actually be in the right. Rather than being on a simple intelligence-gathering operation, he's been helping to destabilize Ghorman's economy and sabotage its reputation, destroying countless lives.

Violence on Ghorman

This conflict comes to a head in an explosive manner, with Syril witnessing a riot orchestrated by Imperial forces, who gun down civilian protesters in Ghorman's central plaza. He now understands that he's partially responsible for the slaughter, an inevitable end point for the years of anti-Ghorman propaganda. In theory, this could have been a turning point where Syril learned to sympathize with the rebel cause. However, he reacts with violence in the moment, culminating in a brutal beatdown with Cassian Andor, whom he notices by pure coincidence in the crowd.

"I always thought that Syril had an incredible amount of anger in him," explained Soller. "In Season 1, you see him be incredibly judgmental of other people. Nothing's ever good enough. He has incredibly high standards. He's zipped up into his outfit within an inch of his life. He's modified it to his own specifications."

"Control, while being about fear, I thought for him was a lot about anger. About not being good enough, not being as far along as he thought he should be." Soller built this anger into his performance from the start, simmering under the surface until Syril reached his breaking point. 

On Ghorman, Syril goes through a physical transformation. In order to make contact with the rebel leader Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel), he starts dressing like a local. After a while though, he appears to genuinely go native, moving away from his buttoned-up Imperial image. 

"It's affecting his costume and his hair, and he's starting to let everything get a bit more flowy. His hair is longer, his jackets aren't as tight, and he's expanding. Because ultimately, in Syril's eyes, this was the Syril story. This is a coming-of-age drama, really, for him. He's completely repressed and controlled and unformed in Season 1, and trying to figure out who he is."

"In Season 2, you see him individuating slightly from his mother. He's starting a relationship the first time in his life with Dedra, and then he has his first heartbreaks, which is betraying Rylanz, who could be seen as a pseudo father figure. A betrayal by Dedra, the first person — and only person — he's ever possibly loved. And a betrayal by his ultimate love, the Empire, in witnessing the massacre that they are performing on the Ghorman people."

"Him throwing Rylanz to the ground is like the first beat of the fight scene with Cassian, in a way. The second beat is strangling Dedra, and then he is in a kind of transition period of like, that's the first time you've seen him really get angry. He's witnessing all this brutality around him and finally understanding that he's been the patsy that created this event."

In the midst of the massacre, he spots Cassian, "the object of his obsession from Season 1, whom he has come to blame for all the negative things in his life for the past four years."

By this point, Soller believes that Syril isn't even thinking about what he's doing. He doesn't actually notice that Cassian is aiming a gun at Dedra Meero across the plaza; he just attacks on pure feral instinct. "He's in such a primal state of transition, it's like he's leaving a cult. He can't believe that up is up and down is down, and that the sky is actually blue anymore."

"He's primarily expunging and exorcizing these dense, dark emotions that he's been gripping and holding onto for so many years," Soller said. "And of course the last ten minutes of his life — which are the most chaotic, most upsetting moments of his life — he's funneling them into this guy."

"I always thought that Syril kind of wants to be beaten up, actually, at this point. But he's been gifted this superhuman strength by the revelations of the last ten minutes, this life force being released within him that he can go toe to toe with Cassian," he continued. "Yeah… I always thought he really just wanted to hurt himself for the hurt that he had delivered to the Ghormans."

An ignominious death

Syril's death scene is, like much of his role, darkly funny. Despite his nominal position as the villain in a gritty political thriller, Syril often acts as comic relief, poking fun at his fastidious personality and adolescent family conflicts. He's unpleasant and morally warped, but he's also hilariously pathetic.

"I just always saw him as funny," said Soller. "I don't know if Tony [Gilroy] always did, but I always did. It was a helpful hook, because I saw him as almost a clown. Not your typical court jester or whatever. But like, he just doesn't know all the information he should know, and he really thinks he's doing the right thing."

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In his last moments, Syril attacks Cassian with single-minded ferocity, channeling years of rage toward a man he views as his nemesis. But Cassian doesn't even recognize him. Staring up at Syril in confusion, he asks, "Who are you?" Cassian has no frame of reference for why this seemingly random guy — a man who looks like a Ghorman civilian — is trying to kill him in such a personal manner. And his question goes unanswered, because Syril then gets shot in the head by Rylanz. 

"Even the last line, you know, it's really funny," Soller said. "Actually, it's tragic. He's about to die, and there's a war going on around, but, like, 'Who are you?' It's so perfect because it's earth-shattering and crushing to him. Are you kidding me? Like, vividly dreaming about this moment for the past four years, and you don't even know who I am? What?"

"I always look for that flip side. If something's really pathetic or tragic, there's sometimes a comedic element to it that's not going to detract from it, but that can be inserted somewhere else," said Soller. So Syril's death becomes a punchline, while Cassian goes on to become a rebel hero, unaware of his life-changing impact on this anonymous stranger.

The final episodes of Andor premiere Tuesday at 9/8c on Disney+.